June 26-June 29 2020 Tornado Outbreak
ItThe June 26-June 29 2020 tornado Outbreak (better known as the Topeka-St Louis tornado Outbreak) was a multi day tornado Outbreak that impacted the states of Utah, Colorado Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The Outbreak resulted in the deaths of 231 and the injury of 384. (Top) Dissipating Kit Carson, Colorado EF2 Tornado about 9 miles Northeast of the town of Kit Carson. (Bottom) Findlay, Ohio EF4 tornado as it passes over I-75 heading into the city. Ratings atings 3 EF5 15 EF4 17 EF3 30 EF2 48 EF1 17 EF0 Synspios (WIP) June 26 In the early morning hours of June 26th the SPC issued an Enhanced risk of severe weather over sections of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Extreme southeast Wyoming. The storm weak line of storms began to form over the mountains of Western Utah. The line, despite being weak began to trigger Severe Thunder storm warnings south of Salt Lake City and towards Provo for radar indicated winds in excess of 65 MPH. The line continued to March east accross the Rockies, occasionally triggering a Severe Thunderstorm warning for strong winds. By 8:30 AM Mountain time the line had made it to the Colorado border, where the first tornado warning of the day was issued. This would later be confirmed as the first tornado of the Outbreak, causing mininal damage to the town of Thompson Springs. The EF-0 tornado knocked out windows and caused some weak and small trees to fall down near the Ballard RV Park and to some houses nearby. By 4:00 PM Mountain Time the line had reached the Denver Metro area. The line began to split into individual cells as the line made it to the plains of Eastern Colorado. By 5:30 tornado warnings had begun to be issued accross the Eastern side of the state. At Approximately 5:50 PM MT, a tornado that would later develop in the Kit Carson EF2 Touched down about 15 miles south west of the small historic town. By 6:05 Tornado sirens had begun to be sounded in the town, but they were substantially late. Only 2 minutes a itfter the sirens we're sounded, the tornado slammed into the town, hitting the local restaurant known as The Trading Post with brute Force. The Tornado would go through the town, leaving 1 dead and 14 injured. Meanwhile, in Idalia, Colorado another EF2 would rush through the town, leaving behind 3 injured. The mayor of Idalia would later say "we were lucky that we did not suffer more injuries. I really think that the sirens and early warning saved lives." The sirens in Idalia, CO were sounded even before the city was under a warning. Giving the citizens of the city plenty of time to take shelter. In northern Kansas, a long tracked high end EF1 ripped through the communities of St. Francis and Wheeler, and affected areas just south of Bird City. (Right) Kit Carson Tornado as it moves into town. Photo by Stan Gardner . *(Below) Tornado Damage in Kit Carson. * * * * * * June 27 By midnight the line had begun to drasticly slow down accros mid-Kansas. By 8:00 AM the SPC had issued a high risk area for a majority of Missouri, a portion of eastern Kansas, and a small portion of western Illinois including the St. Louid-East St. Louis metro area. By 11:00 the SPC had issued a mesoscale discussiob, hinting at them issuing a PDS Tornado watch stretching for Kansas City to St. Louis. By 1:00 the line had reached the Kansas City-Overland Park metro aarea. At 1:15 PM a tornado warning was issued for South Kansas City, MO and Independence, MO. Five minutes after the warning was issued, the coralation coefficient took for the local radar station picked up on definite debries ball over the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, around the same time a report of a stovepipe (Below) Butler, MO tornado near its peak width outside of Ionia, MO tornado right over the UMKC dormatory cme in. This tornado would later be rated as an EF3. The South Kansas City-Independance tornado (See section on this tornado) would result in the deaths of 1 person and the injury of 50. To the south of the Kansas City metro, a very intense supercell began to develop to the west of Clinton, MO. At 2:13 PM storm chasers began to report a fast growing tornado on the ground moving east towards the city of Butler. By the time it reached Butler it had reached a width of over 1 mile and was already doing EF4 damage. Once it reached the city of Clinton, the tornado had began to commit EF5 damage. The tornado would go on to hit the communities of Ionia and Mora, MO as well, committing EF5 damage in Ionia (Where it also reached it's peak width of 1.6 miles wide) and high end EF3 damage in Mora. June 28. June 29 Notable Tornadoes Kit Carson EF2 South Kansas City-Independancr EF3 Butler-Clinton-Ionia-Mora EF5 Tornadoes